Bangalore Royal Challengers secured a place in final of the 2009 IPL with victory over Chennai Super Kings.
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The Royal Challengers have been a side transformed since Anil Kumble took over the captaincy following the departure of Kevin Pietersen and he marshalled his troops superbly to restrict Chennai to 146 with the bat.
Bangalore’s top order all contributed in the chase and Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor saw them home with an over to spare.
Chennai made the start MS Dhoni would have craved, but it was Parthiv Patel rather than Matthew Hayden that launched the attack.
Patel has been in Hayden’s sizeable shadow over the last few weeks, but used the semi-final to showcase his skills with the bat as he smashed Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis out of the attack.
Hayden joined the attack and he hit Vinay Kumar for a huge six over midwicket, but the bowler got his revenge when Manesh Pandey took a comfortable catch at deep midwicket.
The pair put on 61 for the first wicket, but Bangalore pegged Chennai back following the wicket of Hayden and Kallis returned to trap Patel lbw for 36.
MS Dhoni came in at three but never found his stride, scoring at just a run a ball for 28 before falling to Roelof van der Merwe, and it was a similar story for Suresh Raina who made 20 off 18 balls.
Albie Morkel showed his quality with 20 not out, but Chennai were restricted to 146/5 from their 20 overs.
Manish Pandey carried on where he left off from his century against Deccan. Against Deccan he was all about power, but in the semi-final he showed a classy side to his batting as he played some glorious cover drives.
Manpreet Gony claimed the prize wicket of Jacques Kallis and Morkel knocked over Van der Merwe’s leg stump, but the wickets did not knock Pandey off his stride.
He continued to score on both sides of the wicket and found an ally in Rahul Dravid. The pair put on 60 before the strategy break, with Pandey very much the aggressor. The youngster made 48 from 35 balls before missing a straight ball from Jakati going for a big heave.
Muttiah Muralitharan trapped Dravid lbw and Chennai scented a chance, but Virat Kohli (24no) and Ross Taylor (17no) kept their cool under pressure to steer Bangalore home with an over to spare.
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